


Romance Language

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-17
Updated: 2014-01-17
Packaged: 2018-01-09 00:43:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1139434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What he hadn’t counted on, what he couldn’t possibly have expected, was Rodney answering back in perfect French.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Romance Language

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #167 "lost in translation"

For quite possibly the first time in his entire life, John was contemplating a voluntary visit to the base shrink. Because there were probably some very serious and/or repressed issues involved with his current situation.

John, actively avoiding his paperwork, had been hanging around Rodney’s lab, touching Ancient things and playing solitaire on his laptop, when an argument had broken out. Arguments were pretty much inevitable for any working environment involving Rodney, so the rest of the room ignored them, but John cheerfully shut down his virtual card game to watch.

One of the new scientists, Dr. LeCarre, some kind of engineer, had apparently tried to turn on something that he wasn’t supposed to, which if he’d done it wrong— and Rodney was sure he would have— would have taken out the entire west pier. John hadn’t paid much attention to the details, too distracted in charting the tones of Rodney’s voice and the arcs of his hands as he talked.

The two scientists traded insults, getting more and more heated, until Rodney managed a particularly well-placed verbal jab and LeCarre, red-faced, lapsed back into his native French.

John had to work very hard not to grin— somehow, apoplectic swearing was so much more entertaining in languages he didn’t understand.

But what he hadn’t counted on, what he couldn’t possibly have expected, was Rodney answering back in perfect French.

John had never really understood why French was called ‘the language of love’— or why he suddenly did now. Whatever Rodney had said probably wasn’t even remotely complimentary, let alone remotely romantic, but it made something inside John twist with pleasure. He’d known that he had a thing for Rodney’s rants and insults— at best a strange quirk, at worst a mild kink— which he’d always thought was about appreciating the way Rodney’s brain worked.

But this…

LeCarre stuttered, still looking murderous, then turned and stalked from the lab. The other assorted spectators went back to whatever they’d been doing, but Rodney stayed where he was for a moment, smug and victorious.

John was on his feet before he knew he was going to be, snagging Rodney’s arm and steering him toward the door. They made it all the way to the transporter before Rodney snapped, “What? Seriously, Sheppard—”

John hit the control for their quarters and turned to kiss him, crowding Rodney back against the wall of the transporter.

“You’re a freak, you know that?” said Rodney, with deep affection, not even hesitating to kiss him back. “You are the only person I’ve ever met who even tolerates when I do that, let alone getting off on… although, you _usually_ wait a little longer to… you really are a freak, Sheppard, it was the French, wasn’t it?”

“Didn’t know you spoke French,” John mumbled, leaning in for another kiss.

“I don’t. Not really,” said Rodney, between more kisses. “Just, you know.”

They separated long enough to get their door open and stumble inside, before starting right back up again.

“I’m supposed to know everything about you,” John complained.

Rodney rolled his eyes— he was the only person John had ever known who could do that while kissing. “I know I told you that my grandmother was French-Canadian, and that Jeannie and I spent every summer until high school in Quebec, so it’s not my fault you can’t extrapolate from available data.”

“Okay, but seriously, French?”

He leaned in, very close. “ _Pour chaque action, il existe une réaction égale et opposée_ ,” he breathed.

John shivered, involuntarily. “Bed, now.”

Rodney grinned.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> in case anyone was wondering, what Rodney says at the end, in French, is in fact Newton’s first Law of Motion— he’s such a romantic.


End file.
